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Water regulators have begun public hearings on California Governor Jerry Brown’s $15 billion twin tunnel project, known as California Waterfix. The project aims to provide a more reliable water supply for millions of Californians.

The public hearings that began Tuesday at the State Water Resources Control Board are supposed to be narrow in focus – the board must determine whether building three new water intakes on the Sacramento River would harm other water users or the environment.

Long before wind and solar, water was the nation’s top renewable energy source. Going back some 100 years, the United States built enormous dams — like the Depression-era Hoover Dam in Nevada — to produce tremendous amounts of energy.

We have so many such dams that hydropower last year remained our fourth largest source of electricity overall and our single largest renewable source, providing 6 percent of Americans’ electricity. Yet it’s rarely talked about and lacks the excitement attached to other renewables. That’s in part because dams are controversial and can have major environmental consequences, affecting wildlife and altering local ecosystems.

The State Water Resources Control Board will began public hearings, today, on the controversial California WaterFix. The plan would add three new points of diversion that would move water around the Delta and to pumps near Tracy for transport to southern parts of the state.

Farmers and environmentalists fear the project would mean less water for Central Valley agricultural uses and lessen the health of the Delta’s ecosystem and water quality. Unions and Southern California interests tend to be in favor of the project. Unions argue the project would bring thousands of high-paying jobs.